Samsung - SmartThings Hub - White

The Samsung SmartThings Hub was simple and easy to set up, and the price was decent. The only reason I gave it 3 stars is that even though it was simple and easy, it lacks the interface and management that I was use to using the MiCasa Verde zWave hub to control the Yale front door lock. For example, the MiCasa Verde allowed me to add additional door unlock codes easily using my computer, and allowed me to see what codes were programmed. The Samsung SmartThings hub does not allow me that same ability. I am not able to manage the codes or track which code was used at what time, etc. The only way to manage the hub is to use their app on your smartphone, which gives limited ability only to lock and unlock or see the battery level. You can't even access the hub through it's local network ip address. There is no GUI, unlike the MiCasa Verde. Also, the Samsung SmartThings Hub does not always send alerts when things malfunction, such as the door fails to lock properly. It was my understanding that it would do that, yet it does not.

The world of a connected home is relatively young and the compatibility between devices is limited. That said, I wanted to connect this device to a Schlage Z-wave front door lockset and did have trouble making everything connect. After about an hour of resetting the smart hub over and over, I got it to connect. It may have just been my unfamiliarity with this product, but I am not a technology novice and found it to have issues while setting it up. It has been a couple of weeks now, and the hub has stayed connected and I haven't had any issues. Bottom line...you may have to be very patient when you set it up, but it does work. Make sure any home automation product you are looking at, will work with this hub and if any devices you purchase dont need their own communication device to work with the hub. (ie I purchased Lutron PD-6WCL light switch and found I needed a Lutron hub of some sort to make it connect) Bottom line is that you need to do your homework before making a purchase.

It started off a little rocky as I thought I could hook it up to my network wirelessly. After trying a few times, I gave up and just plugged it into my router via an ethernet cable. After I did that, everything worked out fine. I do see some of my "things" go offline from time to time. They normally come back at some point on their own and it's usually not a long time. It's definitely not the distance for these things, as some of them are in the same small room. I don't know if it's the hub or the things themselves at this point. That's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I'm using several z-wave devices and it seems the more of them you have around the house, the better the system works. It seems to sync up pretty quick with google home. There are two versions of the smartthings app on IOS. I have both of them installed. It seems the newer one is better for adding devices and the older one is better for naming them and adding them to google home. Voice commands on these devices work well with google too.

I purchased the product and connected it with 16 smart things multi purpose monitors, arlo pro 2 cameras, ring door bell, a siren etc. After two weeks, the smart home monitor setting, which allows you to toggle on and off the ability to use the set up as an alarm, stopped working. When you try and use it, it displays an internal server error. Samsung support has not been able to fix problem and respond with useless comments before closinf support cases. In addition to this, the product is 10 days past the best buy return period. I wanted time with support and now I am stuck with this garbage. I am very unhappy with the product and experience as a customer. Best buy should not carry this product. Please do not buy!!

Connecting is a pain. If it disconnects or you change your Wifi in any way it will disconnect and good luck in trying to re-connect. If you have a power failure it will disconnect and you're back to step one. And good luck getting any help from Samsung Customer Support. I'm going to try to return this Hub to BestBuy and get another brand. If they don't accept my return on this garbage, I'll cut my losses and purchase another brand. The headaches are not worth the trouble. The Samsung Smartthings app is nice but, confusing and difficult to navigate. Both the Hib and the app are not for anyone that is not Tech inclined. I've been an apple use for years and I had been thinking about changing to a Galaxy phone next year; this Hub convinced me to stay with apple.

I have had no problems with this hub operating my smart home devices. I do wish that there were more supported devices, which I'm sure will be the case in the near future. The other issue I would like Samsung to solve is the fact that my devices cannot be updated through the hub alone. Example: I use Sengled smart light bulbs with this Samsung hub. The only way to update the firmware in the bulbs is through the Sengled hub, which cannot be linked to the bulbs simultaneously with the Samsung hub. I would have to unlink the bulbs from the Samsung hub and relink them to the Sengled hub and then add them back to the Samsung hub again. Not convenient! I contacted Sengled and they said they are working with Samsung to fix this. Otherwise this hub works great.

This is the 2018 model of the SmartThings Hub. It has both WiFi and LAN connections to connect to your router. It offers Zigbee, Z-wave Plus and Bluetooth connectivity to smart home equipment. Compatibility is good so far with most smart home components. The only real down side of going with SmartThings is that it is not compatible with Nest (SmartThings is by Samsung, Nest is by Google) so you can't integrate your nest thermostat into the SmartThings App or its routines. The work around for this problem is to use another free app called "Stringify" to create your routines that incorporate both Nest and SmartThings components together.

I bought this button as a cheap alternative to a Hue switch. The room in question only has a single floor lamp and so asking Alexa to turn it on and off all the time was getting annoying - sometimes a switch is easier. The lag between activating the switch and the light coming on is several seconds. Sometimes more than 5 seconds. That may not sound like a lot, but turn on a light and then stand there for 5 seconds - it's more annoying than shouting at the echo to turn things on. While this device technically does what it is supposed to, it doesn't practically work for my application, and I really don't have another use for it.